Inside NHL 94 Documentary ‘Pixelated Heroes’

September 13, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Video Games 0

Old School Gamer Magazine chats with “Pixelated Heroes” director Mikey McBryan to find out everything about the upcoming NHL 94 documentary. Discussing the origin of the film, the research process and the rapidly approaching and massive NHL 94 tournament in Las Vegas, as well as the film’s first screening, McBryan lets us know everything he’s up to.

For more on “Pixelated Heroes,” Click Here.

Review Fix: How did the idea of this documentary come to you?

Mikey McBryan: It all started in 2005. I was in college in Red Deer Alberta. My friends and I at the time got talking about how much fun it was to play Golden Eye on Nintendo 64. So just like any home sick kid we got bit by the nostalgia bug. One Sunday we headed down to the local used music and game store to buy a 64 and GoldenEye 007. It wasn’t cheap, $80 for the system, $50 for the game and $25 each for extra controllers. While I we were paying for the system I noticed they had Sega Genesis games. Thinking back I remembered how much fun it was to play NHL ’94. So I asked the guy behind the counter if he had any copies for sale. He laughed at me and pointed. There was a stack of at least eight. I walked over and to my surprise, they had a price tag of $1.99 each. I thought to myself wow that’s pretty cheap, that game was my favorite. I walked back to the counter and grabbed the 64 and GoldenEye and we left. That night we played GoldenEye and we had a blast! But after a while I noticed something. GoldenEye 007 has aged horribly, the controls suck and the graphics are not as good as I remembered them. The game is pretty bland by 2005 standards (not to mention 2017 standards). I kept on thinking about NHL ’94. Is it as good as I remembered it? I haven’t played it for about 6 years (which is a lifetime when you are that age). So I went back to the game store and I bought a copy of NHL ’94 for $1.99 and a Sega for $25 bucks. Plugged it into a CRT TV and I was blown away. NHL ’94 was still amazing. I got my friends over and we started playing. I went back to the game store again and I bought every copy they had of NHL ’94. That game didn’t deserve to be in the bargain bin. From that moment on I bought every copy of NHL ’94 I can find (on all systems). I have over 130 copies now. Call me crazy and I still don’t know why I do it.

Now flash forward to 2014. I just finished filming 6 seasons of my TV Show Ice Pilots NWT (Now on NETFLIX). I was sitting at a pub with my buddy and Ice Pilots Director Jereme Watt. He asked me what I wanted to now that the show was done. I said that I really loved the movie King of Kong. I wish I could make a movie about NHL ’94 the same way they did about Donkey Kong. Jereme laughed at me told me NHL ’94 was one of his favorite games as a kid and I should do it! I started researching that night on NHL94.com and the rest is history.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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